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So last year and this year so far have been intense. And not in a good way. Which is why it’s taken me so long to write down what my kids have been doing for homeschooling. But better late than never 😅

I did make some micro posts about the year. You can check them out if you’d like

So last year I sat down with my son and looked at some of the high school requirements of various colleges and universities near us. Since he was little he’s been adamant that he wanted to study science so we focused on those that had strong science programs. Then with that list of requirements we made a rough plan for the next four years.

Course of Study

History, Writing, and Literature

History

For history my son wanted to begin with his World History requirement. I found several strong choices and we went through each option, looking at the syllabus and the topics offered. He chose World History: Africa and Asia with Aim Academy.

This class centered viewing history through the lens of Africa and Asia versus other courses that had a more European centric view. He met with the class once a week online where they discussed as a group that week’s topic. Then he had a full week of assignments, including map practice to memorize all the countries and major land features in Africa and Asia, literature to read, multiple videos to watch, and finally a dozen questions or so to answer and submit for grading. Throughout the year he had essays to write, book reviews, and papers on current topics in the news. The teacher was wonderful and met with my son to help him get back on track when the first few lessons through him for a loop.

Take a look at the book list for the class:

And here are the films they had to watch (most were very intense for him)

Writing

For writing he kept working with his tutor from last year. They worked on a variety of different writing tasks and he had daily free writing time. He covered filling out applications, how to write an email, editing essays, creating outlines, works cited, and how to prepare a presentation and then present it. It was a well rounded year that he enjoyed.

Literature

For the literature portion of his ELA class we sourced a variety of books for him to read and discuss. He also practiced summarizing books and writing reviews.

One other aspect for literature was through a class I found on outschool. It’s called Visual Lit High School: Draw Your Way Through High School English Language Arts. Here he covered poetry and short stories learning oral expression, visual interpretation, and fundamental grammar skills.

Just a few of the poems, short stories, and podcasts he analyzed:

Science and Mathematics

Honors Biology with a Lab

Honors Biology from taylormadescience.com covers the typical topics of cells, genetics, microbiology, plants, animals, human anatomy and physiology, and the environment.

This is the third class my son has done with this teacher and he gets a lot out of it. Every week he reads a chapter from the textbook and takes notes, watches a pre-recorded lesson and then takes a quiz, and then performs the lab with the teacher and other students and then writes up a lab report. In total there were twenty five labs including a frog dissection.

Understanding our Universe through Astronomy

Astronomy from g3 was one of his electives for the spring semester that was a high school level astronomy course adapted from college-level material. He had weekly webinars and textbook readings to cover as well as articles to read and a forum with other students to post responses to questions and prompts.

His favorite part was making trading cards that looked like Magic the Gathering Cards that covered the planets, the moons, and other bodies in the solar system. His final paper for the semester was on Carl Sagan and his life as an astronomer.

Contributing to Scientific Understanding

Contributing to Scientific Understanding from Athena’s Academy was his elective for the fall semester. This online class had weekly webinars covering how to contribute to scientific understanding in a variety of ways as a high school student. My son chose to add to Wikipedia with additional information about invasive plant species in Massachusetts and conducted a survey of several local sites to quantify the types he found and identify them. Then he learned how Wikipedia works and how to format and submit his findings for inclusion.

Honors Geometry

I think we finally found a math that my son isn’t a fan of 😂

He muddled through it though. Once again we used Derek Owens. It is a solid math program that includes short videos, a textbook, and grading services. My son thinks the textbook is personally out to get him. My son had to email Mr. Owens many different times when ideas weren’t clicking and he always got back promptly with recorded videos that help my son tackle the concept.

Interdisciplinary Studies

This will be my son’s last year with his online Falcon’s group. He’s still planning on being active with some of the online clubs the kids run and join any get-togethers that are geographically feasible.

This counted as an elective that I’m calling “Integrated Humanities.” He contributed pieces to the weekly newsletter/paper and performed in the annual Halloween play. Once again they covered a wide variety of topics (that I’m not doing justice) that included:

European Portuguese

Last up for the year was studying Portuguese. He worked with a tutor and the online program Practice Portuguese. We also worked through sections of the textbook Bom Dia! together.

Whew. This year was a lot and it really stretched my son. The beginning of the year was rough as he adjusted to a much higher workload and writing demands. I am so proud of what he accomplished. Next year is 10th grade and that seems both impossible to me and right around the corner. Yikes.

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